PIONEER WORKS OBSERVATORY — BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

The Convergence Platform

Architecture has long connected humans to the cosmos, serving as both a vessel for observation and a catalyst for imagination. The Convergence Platform continues this tradition at Pioneer Works, where interdisciplinary experimentation and public engagement form the heart of its mission. Conceived in dialogue with the Pioneer Works Science Program, the project supports a culture of radical curiosity—expanding access to scientific inquiry through poetic, spatial means.

Positioned on the building’s rooftop, the platform transforms an underutilized surface into a participatory landscape for celestial observation. A series of observatory-like structures—a lookout, oculus, observatory, and life-size periscope—invite public engagement with the sky. These elemental forms serve as instruments for perception and reflection, echoing the institutional commitment to dissolving boundaries between art and science.

The project aligns with the broader architectural vision, which reopens the building with a new observatory and enhanced infrastructure for public programming. The Convergence Platform embodies this ethos—offering new ways to explore the cosmos while grounded in the material and cultural specificity of the site, reflecting the organization’s belief that “a place to look at the stars should belong to everyone.”

The dome’s double curvature is constructed from 22-gauge stainless steel panels in an Angel Hair finish, arranged in a flat-seam interlocking system for precision and resilience. Inside, contoured cork tiles absorb and diffuse sound while also providing thermal insulation—referencing both the acoustics of deep space and the material logics of space exploration. In form and intent, the platform connects earth to sky, individual to collective, and architecture to the expanded field of knowledge-making.